HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY YOURSELF?

Psa 139:14-16)  I will praise You; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are marvelous and my soul knows it very well. My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret and skillfully formed in the lowest parts of the earth.  Your eyes saw my embryo; and in Your book all my members were written, the days they were formed, and not one was among them.

Jeremiah 1:5- BEFORE I formed you in the belly, I KNEW you and BEFORE you came forth out of the womb I SANCTIFIED you , and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.--

Psalm 51:5- Behold I was shapen IN iniquity and IN sin did my mother conceive me. Which is true?

We were known of the Father and sanctified (set apart) by the Father before we came into this realm. 

Once we discover our true identity, the environment of what we are born IN and shapen BY loses it's power over us. It's not that we are innately corrupt,our spirit (the real you) is of the Father. We are unawakened to who we really are, and our thinking becomes a part of a world of darkness and deception,thus creating corrupt actions. ( quote from Michael Scott Jr.)

 Eph. 5:14- Awake thou that sleeps and arise from the dead(corrupt thinking) and Christ shall give thee Light.

(Eph 5:14)  Therefore he says, "Awake, sleeping ones! And arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light."

How Do You Identify Yourself?

What you identify with, you are putting your hope, faith, trust and your confidence in.

BODY

Body minded (“The Mind Set On The Flesh”)

SOUL

Soul minded (I Am how I feel and think)

I identify myself with my personality--I am my personality type, I am even tempered, I am short fused, I am shy, I am fiery, I am quiet, I am talkative. I am my personality.

I am my possessions, my money, my things, and my family bloodline. I am my status in life. I am successful, or I am a failure. My car, my house, or boat or my job security makes me who I am.

My security and identity comes from where I attend church. —I say, I am charismatic, I am a Baptist, I am from the Vineyard, I am a Presbyterian, a Catholic, or I am non-denominational. Therefore, I am my Spiritual affiliation.

I am what I accomplish and perform spiritually, or I am my ministry. I get inner brownie points from doing good works. I identity myself with my good works, I even boast about them.

We identify myself with my relationships—my husband, my wife, or my children. What I could not accomplish myself, I will do it through my children. I have validity because my husband is successful, or I am not valid because my wife is fat and not so beautiful. My children are smart, so I identity myself as a good parent. My children have embarrassed me, so therefore I am not a good parent. My security and confidence is drawn from my family life.

I even identify myself with my sins—I am Gay, I am an alcoholic, I am an addict, I am a liar, I am a lustful, I am hateful, or “I am a carnal person sold under sin,” as Paul says. Truth: We may commit sins, and we must not be in denial, but my sins are not who I am. They might be what I am doing but they are not who I am.

I am my profession; what I do for a living is who I am. I am a teacher, I am a judge, I am a doctor, I am an electrician, I am a stay-at-home mother, I am a janitor, I am a computer expert, I am an unemployed failure, I am a school drop out, I am a Harvard graduate, I am a nurse, I am a pilot, etc. I draw my identity from my work place, or from my nationality—I am a Ford worker, I am an American, I live in a mobile home, or I live in a large house.

Truth: No matter what you do or where you live, these criteria DO NOT DEFINE WHO YOU ARE. When we live by this false identity and draw our security from this realm, we are always needy, always dissatisfied, and self-centered, because nothing is ever enough to satisfy us. We are left with an insatiable hunger, …ever looking for fullness, and completeness, but never finding it.

SPIRIT

Spirit minded (focus on Who I am in Spirit).

True: In our Spirits, Christians are joined to Christ, who is our life and the very power source that we live by. We are Christ in our human forms and that is my (our) true Spiritual identity. I am the actual body of Christ and my spirit is married to HIS Spirit so we are one. This oneness is somewhat like a piece of iron lit on fire. The iron and the fire share their essences with each other and become one. The fire so interpenetrates the iron that the iron almost disappears, yet the fire has no form without the iron, and the iron has no reality without the fire. This is true inter-dependency, and oneness.

When I identify myself as a human spirit joined to, and indwelt with the Holy Spirit, I can dare claim all that Jesus is as me. “I am peace, because the Prince of Peace lives in me.” “I am righteous, because HIS righteous is MY righteousness.” “I am power because the resurrection power of the universe lives my life.” I am holy, because the Holy Spirit is my life.” “I am love, because, Jesus my life’s source is a lover poured out to others.” “I am a co-heir with Jesus, because I have inherited Him and all that he is. I am the bride, for He is my new husband.” “I am accepted in the beloved, I am chosen, I am justified, I am sanctified, I am glorified, I am a New Creation, I am a king and a priest, I have royal blood, I am a true Israelite, a Jew, I am a priest after the order of Melchizedek” who has no beginning and no end. I am eternal.

I have access and rights to the Throne Room “I can ask anything in His name and He will give it to me and it shall be done.” “I can say unto any mountain in my life, ‘Be Thou Removed,’ and it shall obey me.” I am now one with God who creatively “calls the things that are not as though they were.” All power in heaven and earth has been given unto me, for “I live by the faith of the Son of God.”

My soul and body are anointed by the Holy Spirit and express the fruit of the Holy Spirit. My precious humanity is rightly used in righteousness. My humanity comes alive eternally and is rightly accepted and appreciated. I have no condemnation. “I have overcome the evil one” and “the evil one touches me not.” I have special Spiritual gifts, and I have all power, authority, and dominion in heaven and earth, and “I have all sufficiency for all things.” AMEN